


Good Idea, Karkat

by Kamikaze2007



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cutting, F/M, Humanstuck, Implied Sexual Content, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-29
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-12-06 20:26:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamikaze2007/pseuds/Kamikaze2007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When two new girls transfer into her school, social butterfly Terezi has to try (and fail) to adjust to no longer being in the limelight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Idea, Karkat

If there was one thing Terezi Pyrope was proud of above all else, it was her quirkiness that could hold nearly anyone’s attention. Since all the way back when she was barely walking on two legs, everyone she knew loved watching her to see what she would do next. Granted, when someone’s a baby, they’re kind of the center of attention by default. This habit of snagging all the attention carried Terezi through the vast majority of her education and earned her a few friends along the way. In senior year, however, she ran into a problem:

Transfer students.

In Terezi’s experience, new students always joined class at the beginning of the school year, not in the middle of it. So when two seemingly random girls walked into her first period class, Terezi wore a look of confusion and mild worry until the teacher introduced them as two transfer students from California. Terezi poked the short, sandy-haired boy in front of her and he leaned back to hear what she had to say. “Hey Karkat, what the hell is a transfer student?”

Karkat turned back to look at Terezi. “Are you serious?” Terezi’s blank expression told him yes and he sighed. “Transfer students are basically just new students.”

“In the middle of the year?”

Karkat shrugged. “Yeah.”

“But why? They’ll be totally lost.”

“Not really,” Karkat explained, “the way I see it, the curriculum at their school is nearly identical to ours, or else why would they even transfer here?”

Terezi mulled over what he said. “Yeah, good point.”

The teacher coughed loudly to silence the two and continued. “Now, I’d like you all to say hi to Meenah Peixes.”

Meenah was a tall, skinny girl with two obscenely long braids going down her back, two eyebrow piercings, and a wild smile. Her eyes scanned the room as if trying to estimate the price she could get for everyone at a pawn shop. She waved at everyone’s tired greeting and found a seat next to Karkat.

The next girl had considerably more normal hair reaching down to her shoulder blades. She had red sunglasses nestled in her dark hair and wore a teal sweater that had a red libra symbol intertwined with a yellow gemini symbol depicted on it. Terezi couldn’t quite put her finger on why, but this girl seemed very familiar. It struck her when the teacher read this new girl’s name.

“And this is Latula Pyrope.”

Terezi audibly gasped and nearly fell out of her desk. Family resemblance is what made her look so familiar! “You’re kidding me,” she mumbled.

Karkat turned around and raised an eyebrow at Terezi. “You didn’t tell you had any relatives our age.”

“I didn’t know,” Terezi said quickly. “Who knows, maybe it’s a coincidence.”

Karkat scoffed. “Yeah, okay. I’m sure there are so many Pyropes running around, yeah?”

Terezi bit her lip, thinking about every relative she could recall off the top of her head. “But I don’t remember any Latula from our family gatherings.”

“Ask about her tonight, then,” Karkat suggested.

“Good idea.”

~~~

Lunch that day is when everything started to go downhill fast. Terezi was in the middle of recalling an yet another anecdote about some crazy antics one of her grandparents got into last year when Latula and Meenah found their way to her group’s table. “Hey guys, what’s going on?” Latula asked. Rose, who was easily the most polite member of this group of friends, smiled at her politely and explained that Terezi was in the middle of a story. “Oh, I’m sorry for interrupting, could you start over for me?”

Terezi shrugged, “It’s fine, really. It’s kind of a long story so I’ll tell it again later. Right now, you should tell us about yourselves.” Latula took a seat next to Kanaya, who greeted her with a handshake and a bow of her head. Meenah plopped down next to Karkat and proceeded to ignore everyone except for the artists rapping into her ears via her headphones.

“Well, I’m Latula and this is Meenah, we’re from California.”

“That much I remember,” Karkat said, nodding. “Is your last name really Pyrope?”

“Yeah,” Latula confirmed, “Why?”

“Well, that’s Terezi’s last name too,” Karkat explained.

“I did hear that someone else had my last name here!” Latula said. “Is that true?”

Terezi nodded. “Yeah, I’m Terezi Pyrope.”

“Before you start your family reunion, maybe the rest of us should introduce ourselves,” Rose suggested.

“Okay, yeah. I’d like to meet you all,” Latula agreed.

From Terezi’s right, Karkat said “I’m Karkat Vantas.”

From Karkat’s right, Meenah said, “more like Karcutie am I right?”

Karkat blushed and looked down at his food while Terezi nearly spit her drink.

“Way to make a good first impression, Meenah,” Latula said with only slight sarcasm.

“What can I say, I made a splash.”

From directly across the table from Terezi, Rose giggled. “My name is Rose Lalonde.”

From to her right, Kanaya said, “And I’m Kanaya Maryam.”

“Hey everybody,” Latula greeted. “Great to meet ya, now Terezi, do you think we’re related?”

Terezi shrugged again. “We could be. I’ll ask my parents when I get home. You should do the same.”

“Good idea,” Latula nodded. Terezi’s friends then proceeded to give their attention to Latula and Meenah for the last twenty minutes of lunch. Terezi was not used to letting others be the center of attention for so long. It’s not that she was an attention whore, but she was raised to expect the limelight at all times. Not being the focus of the conversation for so long was just strange and it looked like everyone just stopped caring. When the bell that told them to go to their next class sounded, Terezi let out a sigh of relief until Latula left them with “I’ll see you guys tomorrow!”

~~~

Later that night, Terezi asked her parents over dinner about any family members she didn’t know about. Her mother looked at her father knowingly and said, “well, there is one. Why do you ask?”

“Well, we got a new student at school today and she has my last name.”

Her father rose an eyebrow and said, “is her name something like…” He paused to try to remember. “Latitude or something?”

“It’s Latula,” Terezi said after laughing at her father’s butchering of the name.

“Oh right, Latula,” He nodded.

“So what’s the deal? Why haven’t I ever met her?” Terezi asked.

“Well, her father happens to be my twin brother. Shortly after his daughter was born, he and his wife moved to California, and we haven’t spoken since,” her father explained.

“Why not?” Terezi asked. “Did you two not get along?”

“Oh, exactly the opposite actually. It’s just that we kind of stopped communicating. We both had families to support and we didn’t have the time to catch up or the money to drive out to see each other. But yeah, his daughter is just a few weeks older than you. We should arrange a get together or something.”

“I’ll talk to her about it,” Terezi replied. It was a lot to absorb that for eighteen long years, she had a cousin that could have grown up as her sister and she never knew about it. It was even crazier that that same cousin was now going to the same school as her.

It sucked that her cousin’s friend was hitting on her best friend, though.

~~~

The next day, Karkat found Terezi at her locker and asked what came of the second Pyrope situation. “Well, my dad says his twin brother had her a few weeks before I was born and then moved to California right after, so I’m pretty sure Latula’s my long lost cousin-twin or something.”

Karkat nodded. “Cousin-twin. Fantastic. And why haven’t you ever seen her at a family reunion or anything?”

“Because California’s a long way to drive and a lot of money to spend,” Terezi responded.

“Understandable,” Karkat said. “But what’s she doing here now, though?”

“I dunno, I’ll ask her.”

As if on cue, Latula came up to them both and patted Terezi on the back. “Hey, cousin!”

“Hey, Latula. I can tell you asked about our last name thing too.”

“Of course I did. How many Pyropes could possibly be running around?”

“That’s what I said,” Karkat turned to Terezi. “Betcha you didn’t believe me, did you?”

“I never said that I didn’t believe you.”

“Anyway,” Latula dismissed, “We should totally get everyone together and have a mini family reunion.”

“We could arrange that,” Terezi responded.

“Radical! Catch you in class.” And with that, Latula was off.

“Terezi,” Karkat said, turning to her. “You’re related to someone who still uses the word ‘radical’ unironically.”

Terezi sighed. “Yep.”

“Hey, you okay? You don’t sound very happy for someone who just found her long lost cousin-twin,” Karkat asked.

“No, I’m fine. I’m just tired,” Terezi assured him.

“If you change your mind, I’m here,” Karkat offered.

Terezi smiled at him weakly. “Thanks, Karkat. You’re the best.”

~~~

At lunch, Terezi once again had to deal with being largely ignored, as her friends were all focused on getting to know Meenah and Latula. She shrugged it off though, because it was understandable that everyone take a day or two to know the new students.

She didn’t expect a day or two to turn into a week.

Or two weeks.

Or a month.

Finally, she realized that she just couldn’t compete with Latula’s “radical” personality. Even when the part of the family previously unknown got together, Latula proved to be far more intriguing than her cousin-twin ever could be. Meenah was far more interesting than she was too, if only to Karkat. The fact that Terezi was so shocked to not be in the limelight anymore just made her sadder, as she acknowledged that this was incredibly selfish of her to be feeling. This lead to a continuous cycle of self-hatred that only got worse and worse. Terezi started to get more and more quiet at lunch as time went by and Karkat took note. One day, after lunch had ended and everyone else has dispersed, Karkat hung back to ask Terezi why she was being so quiet. “Oh, it’s nothing. I was just letting everyone get close to the others, since they’re more interesting.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Karkat started. “They’re just…louder. And that’s not a bad thing.”

“Sure, whatever,” Terezi shrugged.

Before Karkat could object, Meenah came back to the table to grab her backpack. “Hey, Karkat,” she greeted. “You should walk me home today.”

“I told you, I don’t walk home, I drive,” Karkat said.

“Then you should at least walk me out,” Meenah countered.

“Okay, fine. But right now I’m kind of—”

“And walk me to my next class?” Meenah asked with a wink.

Karkat tried his best not to roll his eyes and turned to Terezi. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sure you will,” Terezi mumbled. Once again, Karkat tried to object to her tone but was interrupted. This time, it was by Meenah grabbing his wrist and pulling him away from the table. Terezi sighed and made her way to her locker, trying to keep her eyes dry. She was greeted by a terrible odor when she reached her locker and dreaded the deep, ragged voice she was about to hear.

“Hey, where’s your posse?” Gamzee Makara asked. “Normally they’re swarming around you like your little worker bees.”

“Go away, Gamzee,” Terezi pleaded.

“I asked you a question,” he insisted.

“They’re hanging out with my cousin. Now go away,” Terezi shot while she opened her locker.

Gamzee chuckled. “Looks like someone can’t handle not being popular anymore. Boo-fucking-hoo, you attention whore.”

“Why don’t you go back to smoking pot in the bathroom?” Terezi shot back, making sure she was loud enough so that any passing teachers could hear.

“Sure thing. And if I see Karkat and Meenah in there, I’ll be sure to say hi.” Gamzee waved as he turned to leave.

“Wait, what?” Terezi asked. She couldn’t see it, but Gamzee smirked.

“Oh yeah, I see them in there almost every day now. They get their wicked make out on. It’s actually pretty steamy.”

“You’re lying,” Terezi finally said after a moment. “Karkat wouldn’t do that.”

“You tell yourself that all you want,” Gamzee said while shaking his head. “Doesn’t change the facts.”

Finally, Terezi had had enough. “Get out of here you  _freak_!” With a manic chuckle, Gamzee seemingly wandered off. Terezi slammed her locker door closed before she remembered that she didn’t have everything she needed for her next class. She groaned in frustration and banged her head on her locker door.

~~~

Over the next two weeks, Terezi just got worse and worse. She hardly spoke more than a sentence or two during lunch and she was a lot quieter in class. She also did her best to look away every time Meenah spoke to Karkat. Every time Karkat tried to ask her what was wrong, she insisted she was just fine, even though she was obviously not. One day, he decided to take it up with everyone at the table when Terezi got up to use the restroom. “Okay, I can’t be the only one who’s seeing this shit. Do _any_  of you know what’s wrong with Terezi?”

Latula shook her head. “I know something’s wrong, but I don’t know what. I asked her parents last time we all hung out, and they said she’s been acting differently at home too. Apparently she used to be really energetic and fun, but she’s not acting like it at all.”

Rose nodded. “She’s definitely changed since you two got here.”

“Oh man, I hope I didn’t do anything to piss her off,” Latula said.

“I would suggest asking her, but she won’t even tell  _me_  what’s wrong, and I’m her best friend,” Karkat sighed.

“She’ll get over whatever it is,” Meenah assured him.

“It’s been two months,” Karkat replied.

“Sometimes it takes longer for some than others,” Meenah said.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Before Meenah could explain herself, Terezi was back at the table. Everyone paused, waiting for her to say something, but her mouth remained tightly shut and they hesitantly resumed their miscellaneous conversations. When the bell rang, Karkat put a hand on Terezi’s shoulder before she could get up to leave. When everyone else had left, he asked her once again what was wrong. “And don’t tell me nothing this time, because I know something’s wrong.”

“Really Karkat, it’s nothing,” Terezi insisted. “Now please let me get to class so you can hang out with Meenah.”

“But I don’t want to hang out with Meenah,” Karkat shook his head. “I want to hang out with my best friend again.”

Terezi’s eyes started to water and she shook her head. “I’m sorry.” She got up to leave but Karkat grabbed her wrist. He gasped when he did so, because he felt something strange under his fingers. He brought Terezi’s hand closer to him and turned it over in his hands. He brought up her sweatshirt’s sleeve and gasped at the sight of three thin, red scars across her wrist. He looked at Terezi’s eyes and felt his face heat up. Terezi wordlessly yanked her hand out of his grasp and ran away from the table. Karkat looked at where her wrist was seconds ago and could vividly picture the thin red lines running across them. His eyes started to water and he sat there in shock until the one-minute warning bell sounded. He quickly made his way to his next class and made a mental note to do an internet search for how to hold an intervention for cutting later.

~~~

The internet search idea flopped, and Karkat started arranging something in secret with his other friends. Rose and Kanaya were devastated to hear about this new development, so they were on board with Karkat’s idea. Latula immediately jumped on the plan as well, but it was Meenah who gave Karkat troubles.

“Big deal. You have no idea how many people I knew back at home who did the same thing. If I held an intervention for every one of those pansies, I’d never make it home.”

“Terezi’s not a pansy,” Karkat snapped. “She’s in distress and we need to help her.”

“She’s doin’ it for attention,” Meenah fired back.

Karkat shook his head and turned away. “Fine, be that way. I’ll find someone else to be our fifth friend.”

Finding a fifth person to help Terezi was no small task, but eventually Karkat thought to consult her ex-boyfriend, Dave Strider. “Look, I know you and her had your differences, but can you put that behind you long enough to help her out?”

Dave thought for a moment, before saying, “Yeah, I’ll help. I know where that shit leads, and I would be so guilty if something happened to her that I could have helped stop.”

“Thanks Dave,” Karkat said. “You’re not as bad as I thought you were.”

“Neither are you, Vantas,” Dave shot him a thumbs up. “Just lemme know a place and a time and I’ll clear up my intensely busy schedule.”

“When will you be free next?” Karkat asked.

“Any day you need. Literally any day. My schedule’s empty.”

~~~

That day ended up being the very next Saturday at around noon. The five people who agreed to hold this amateur intervention gathered at Karkat’s house and walked the laughably short distance between his house and Terezi’s. Karkat knocked on the door, expecting an awkward encounter with her parents, but instead was greeted by a sleepy Terezi opening the door in her pajama pants and a loose tank top. “Sorry, but my parent’s aren’t—” she abruptly stopped when she realized her company was actually three of her friends, Latula, and her ex-boyfriend. Karkat noticed from the corner of his eye that Terezi put her hands behind her back to hide her wrists. “What are you guys doing here?”

Karkat answered her question with another question: “Your parents aren’t home?”

“They’re out of town to gamble or whatever,” Terezi explained. “I didn’t really listen.”

“How cliche,” Dave remarked.

“Anyway, what are you all doing here?” Terezi repeated.

“Right, may we come in?” Karkat asked.

“Uh, sure.” Everyone got sat down in Terezi’s living room and Karkat started his only slightly prepared speech that wasn’t even really a speech.

“Terezi, we’re here to ask you what’s wrong. Don’t try to say nothing’s wrong, because your wrists say otherwise.” At this, Terezi again hid her hands behind her back once again. “We’re worried about you and we want to help, but you’re not letting anybody know what’s been bothering you.”

Terezi looked down and sniffled. She remained silent and Rose spoke up. “Terezi, Karkat told us about your wrists, and we’re worried about you. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Nor do I.” Kanaya said.

“Even you, Dave?” Terezi asked.

Dave nodded and took off his sunglasses, which signaled to everyone that he was as serious as he could get. “We’ve had our differences in the past, but I know where the road you’re taking leads. Some buds of mine have went down it and trust me, it’s not somewhere you wanna be. I don’t want to see you get yourself hurt.”

Terezi looked at Latula, her eyes already swimming. “Even you?”

Latula nodded. “Look, you’re my cousin. Of course I care.”

Terezi surveyed everyone and looked at Karkat. “What about your girlfriend?”

Karkat tilted his head. “Girlfriend? I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“That’s not what Gamzee said.”

“What did Gamzee say?” Karkat asked cautiously.

“Gamzee said he ran into you and Meenah making out in the bathroom,” Terezi accused.

“Excuse me?” Karkat had to hold back laughter. “And since when were you one to believe Gamzee about anything?”

Terezi paused. “It…seemed plausible at the time. Wait, are you saying you and Meenah don’t have a thing?”

“Of course not. I mean yeah, she’s hit on me, but I just don’t like her in that way,” Karkat explained.

“Oh, well now I feel even worse for driving everyone away,” Terezi wailed.

“Is that really the only reason you’ve been so down?” Karkat asked.

“No, of course not,” Terezi snapped.

Karkat looked almost ready to yell, so Rose calmly inserted herself. “Then tell us what it is.”

“You don’t care,” Terezi said.

“We literally just spent like five minutes talking about how we care,” Dave said. “Now spit it out.”

“No, that’s my problem. Once Latula and Meenah arrived, everyone just stopped caring about me. You dropped everything and focused only on how cool the new chicks were. Terezi just fell to the side. Hell, even my parents fucking like her more.” Terezi couldn’t finish her last sentence without bursting into tears.

Latula frowned and stood up. She walked over to Terezi and pulled her up into a tight hug. “Cousin, I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t mean to invade your life like this.”

Terezi finally returned the hug with shaky arms. “I’m sorry. I’m just a whiny bitch. You deserve my friends. I don’t.”

Latula looked into Terezi’s eyes. “That’s not true.”

“Yeah,” Kanaya chimed in. “If we didn’t like you anymore, we would have stopped hanging out with you.”

“Really?”

Rose nodded. “Of course.”

Latula finally let Terezi go and she sat down again. “Karkat, do you feel that way too?”

“Duh,” Karkat said. “You’re the most important person in my life, and there’s no way I’d ever leave you.” As he said this, his face reddened as he realized the implications of his word choice.

“Really?” Terezi asked.

“Why else would I arrange this?” Karkat said, looking around at everyone who came. “Now, we only have one request.”

“What is that?”

Karkat stood up and made his way to Terezi. “All I ask,” he started, keeling down and taking her hand. He turned it over and traced the scars on her wrist. “Is that you don’t do anything to give these little guys company. Maybe get some help if you need to. And above all, know that we’re always,  _always_  here for you. Especially me.”

Now Terezi was crying for a different reason. She fell from her chair to get on her knees in front of Karkat and she threw her arms around him. “Oh my god, Karkat, you’re the sweetest guy ever. Thank you so much for this.”

Karkat finally returned her hug and said, “it’s no problem, really.”

“I love you,” Terezi whispered, half hoping Karkat wouldn’t hear. Unfortunately,  _everyone_  heard.

“I love you too,” Karkat responded. They pulled away from their hug and stared at each other, blushing and thinking about what they just said.

Finally,  _finally_  they kissed a soft, first-time lovers kiss and Dave raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t see that one coming.”

“You’d be the only one,” Rose giggled. Kanaya chuckled too as Karkat and Terezi shared another hug.

~~~

A few hours passed during which the six friends hung out and played video games and shared a genuinely good mood for the first time in a long time. Finally, the sun was starting to set, so Terezi’s visitors decided it was best to head home. “We all parked at Karkat’s house, so we better get back there before it’s completely dark out,” Rose explained.

“Good idea,” Terezi said. “People get lost in this neighborhood in the daylight, so I’d hate to see you guys flounder around it at night.”

“Exactly,” Kanaya confirmed. “So we better get going.”

“Okay, thank you all so much for coming,” Terezi said again. “It means so much to me.”

“You know it,” Dave said. With that, everyone except Terezi made their way to her front door.

“Hey, Karkat?” Terezi asked. “Can you stay a bit longer? You do know your way around, even in the dark, right?”

“Yeah, I guess I could,” her new boyfriend said. “Why?”

“I’d just like to…talk to you,” Terezi lied.

“Okay, sure,” Karkat said, hanging back. “I’ll see you all later.”

“Hold on,” Dave said. “Karkat, come here. Lemme give you a high five.”

“Oh, uh, okay.” Karkat shared a high five with Dave during which he felt something get slipped into his hand. He looked at his palm and on it was laying an unopened condom. “Um, Dave? I…”

Dave put a finger to his lips and shushed Karkat. “I have a feeling you’ll be needing it.” Kanaya and Rose giggled.

“I won’t be needing it, but thanks anyway,” Karkat said. Terezi escorted Latula, Dave, Rose and Kanaya to the door and closed it tight, making sure she locked it before turning around and winking at Karkat.

“Now that we’re alone…” Terezi let her sentence trail off as she sauntered over to Karkat, letting one of the straps on her tank top fall off her shoulder. Karkat let his jaw drop as she walked past him (nudging him with her hip as she passed) and toward the flight of stairs that led up to her room.

A moment passed before her tank top landed at the bottom of the stairs, followed by her pajama pants, and Karkat suddenly knew why Dave slipped what he did into his hand. “Good idea, Dave,” he mumbled before chasing a now-naked Terezi up her stairs.


End file.
